14 lessons I've learnt being a teacher

It's not just a job, it's more a lifestyle. Can you relate to these?

Teachers play a big part in the lives of all of us. They guided us when we were young, helped us to get where we are today and now they might be our friends, family or even our husbands and wives. It's a job that's always in the headlines and feels the effect of every election acutely, but what is it really like to be a teacher today?

We spoke to Emma Mort, whose teaching career spans 15 years. Emma currently teaches secondary French and German to Years 7 to13 and is an active member of the National Union of Teachers. This is what Emma has learnt in the classroom...

1. Children are incredibly fragile
As a teacher, I have a responsibility to build them up as much as possible and everything I say has an impact in some way. My favourite quote is one from Maya Angelou: 'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

2. …and very funny…
Children always cheer me up and they make me laugh every single day – the energy they have and their enthusiasm for life are infectious. Being in the classroom is absolutely the best bit about the job.

3. …and they aren’t just numbers on a spread sheet
Children remember a great lesson, not what colour they were on a spreadsheet. At the moment in education, there is a shift towards constantly providing data and evidence, which takes time away from what’s really important – the teaching. Right now, it’s like nothing is valid unless it appears on a spreadsheet.

4. I never want to stop learning
Life is all about learning and I am constantly inspired by the young people I teach. They come up with different ways of looking at things that I never would have thought of and they fill me with ideas.

5. Humans are fundamentally the same
Every child wants someone to see their value and help them be successful at something. They want the freedom to play, to explore, to make mistakes and to learn from me and their friends. It’s my job to find out what makes each student unique and to help them to grow as individuals.

6. There is always a reason for bad behaviour
If someone is naughty in my lesson, it’s very rarely personal. You should never judge anyone as you don’t know what they might have been through just to get to school that morning.

7. Teaching is a lifestyle – not just a job
My day never finishes at 3.15pm and I really need the holidays when they come round. And no, teachers don’t get six weeks of holiday every Summer – that’s when we plan, organise the classrooms and catch up on admin.

8. It’s stressful
I ask my daughter if she thinks I’m tired or stressed and some days she says yes. Sometimes, when I put my children to bed, they'll ask me, ‘Are you tired? Have you got work to do?’ They can pick up from my mood that I need them to get to bed so I can carry on with the marking or planning that I need to do for the next day.

9. But it’s hard to make the Government understand
Politicians and education policies have a massive impact on both teachers and students. The current crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, as well as changes to the curriculum and ways in which we examine and assess our children, make me fearful for the kind of educational system current and future generations are going to grow up in. I wish that politicians would listen to the people who know best – the teachers.

10. I’ve grown a thick skin
Occasionally you get a child who is verbally abusive towards you and while, in my early years of teaching, this would reduce me to tears, I have learnt to toughen up. There is a reason behind why a child acts that way and, as teachers, we do our best to get to the bottom of it. You have to be consistent and fair and stay calm at all times.

11. Teaching has changed a lot
And now it’s all about tests. A good teacher will constantly assesses their students anyway and doesn’t want to waste precious school funding on paying for external assessments of children as young as four. I’m worried about what over-testing might be doing to children’s mental health.

12. It’s OK to find things difficult
We all have a tendency to give up on things when we find them difficult, but that’s normal. What matters is that we learn to handle difficult things and find a way around them without quitting. Instead of telling me you haven’t got a pen, ask me if you can borrow one.

13. I value my family time more than anything
It does bother me sometimes that I seem to put other people's children before my own. But I cherish the time that I do have with my children and my weekends are sacred (I try not to work at all apart from Sunday evening). An experienced teacher once told me that Parkinson's Law always applies: the work you have to do expands to fit the amount of time that you're prepared to give to it, so I try to set myself a time limit and don't work beyond that.

14. I’ll always feel immensely privileged to do the job I do
I became a teacher because I wanted to change the world. I’ve realised that that was slightly ambitious but, if I can change one person’s perspective or encourage them to do something they never would have dreamed possible, then I’ve more than achieved what I set out to do. To be able to help children on their journey to wherever they want to go in life is a really special thing. It's a job that really matters.

Good Housekeeping, Part of the Hearst UK Fashion & Beauty Network
Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.